1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a selective image data encoding apparatus, a selective image data encoding system and method thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus, a system and a method for changing frame rate by which image data from an imaging apparatus is acquired and transmitted or stored in a recording medium according to a setting performed for association of sensor with imaging device. The present invention is also related to a method for setting up the settings for sensor-imaging device association for such apparatus and system.
2. Related Art
Video capture cards and digital video recorders (DVRs) using video capture cards have inherent limitations regarding a maximum frame rate that can be supported over video inputs. Such maximum frame rate denotes the number of frames that can be dealt with (for example, which can be encoded or transmitted) on the card at the same time. An example is a video capture card or DVR with, say, 8 camera inputs that support, for example, a frame rate of 120 frames per second. Such card/DVR would support a theoretical 15 frames per second per camera input.
In conventional systems, the frame rate to be used for a single camera is preset and defined at the time of system setup or startup. For example, the user may specify the frame rate for each single camera or specify time intervals when recording is required and/or not required. Other conventional systems may have an intelligent mechanism that gives a higher frame rate to a camera if some movement is detected in the video data from that camera. In addition, the sensibility of movement may be configured or set to specific areas of the captured scene.
Prior arts of record can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,152 for “Digital video recording system” having a video camera directed at a scene of interest to continuously view the scene and generate video images of the scene at a predetermined frame rate; U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,909 for “Television camera and recording system for high definition television having imagers of different frame rate”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,150 for “Video bit rate control method” for changing bit rate of video images for controlling picture quality.